Sunday, April 5, 2009

Ayervedic cooking

Looking into a different way of eating--why not?

There are 6 tastes in Ayurvedic cooking, and they should be eaten at each meal...sweet, sour, pungent, astringent, salty and bitter. That's quite a variety to hit with every main meal isn't it? American diets don't touch but maybe 2 or 3. We aren't big on mixing tastes up.

Each of the tastes balance a different energy in us, and if include each of them, we will reduce cravings. We certainly don't come NEAR to covering all these bases in our meals!

They also classify foods into physical types, or doshas: heavy, light, dry, liquid, warm or cool, and we should eat to balance the energy of our dosha.

Vata is rough, hard, cold, dry and light
Pitta is sharp, hot, oily and light
Kapha dosha is cold, liquid, heavy and unctuous.

Find out what your dosha is and then eat to counterbalance it...I think that's how it works? I need some more work on this-it seems confusing to me, but it could just be because it's so different.


They believe we need all foods, all food groups and all food types.
Include lots of spices, colors, and textures so the plate looks appealing.